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Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Build Your Own Lunch

This is a much delayed post as I have problem uploading photos to blogger :(

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you would have realised that I need many photos to compose my post as I am really weak at writing. I find it easier to do up a post with lots of photos as my writing is not very different from a Primary 3 picture composition :')

My kids love pizza. However, having pizza at the restaurants or even getting them delivered to your door-step can be expensive. So whenever both of them are at home during the school holidays, we will make it a point to build our own homemade pizza. I guess homemade pizza is also a much healthier option.

This time round, I tried another pizza dough recipe from this book "Baking with Kids" by Linda Collister, who happens to be one of my favourite authors. I fell in love with the beautiful illustrations in the book the moment I picked it up from the library shelf. I have bookmarked several of her recipes and this is the very first recipe I tried. I liked the fact that dried mixed herbs is added to the dough as I love the aroma of mixed herbs, be it used in cooking or baking.

I like to involve my kids in my cooking whenever the opportunity arises. I find cooking with my kids very fun, at least it feels good that I am not alone toiling away in the kitchen. My younger child helped me knead the pizza dough with great enthusiasm, while the elder one gave me a hand when it came to slicing up the hams, pineapples and sausages. Both will fight over who to spread the sauce and toppings, and without fail they would smuggle some hams and pineapples while I was not looking.

We made two pizzas from this recipe, Hawaiian...their all time favourite, and another one with my favourite mushroom toppings.

To my delight, the dough was pretty easy to roll out, unlike my past experience with some other recipes. We were able to roll out the the dough till very thin without it shrinking back the moment we lift up the rolling pin.

The resulting crust was rather thin with very crispy edge, although the centre of the pizza was less crisp. Even though I used canned mushrooms, the pizza was still as delicious, the left over sausages gave a nice savory taste to it. We had a fun and hearty lunch that day. I am already looking forward to another round of pizza making soon.

Place flour, salt, yeast and dried mixed herbs in a mixing bowl. Mix well with hand. Make a well in the centre and add the water and olive oil. Using your hand, gradually work the ingredients together to form a soft dough.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10mins until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Shape dough into a round ball and place in a lightly oiled mixing bowl. Cover with cling wrap and leave to rise for 1 hr or until double in size.

Turn out the risen dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knock it down to release the air. Give it a few gentle kneading. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Shape into two balls, cover loosely with cling wrap and let the doughs rest for about 10mins.

Roll or press out each portion to a round, about 12" in size. Place dough on baking tray lined with parchment paper or on a greased pan.

Spread some pizza sauce over the dough to within 1 cm (0.5 inch) of the edge. Arrange a layer of grated cheese (I used grated mozzarella), followed by preferred toppings. Sprinkle the top all over with grated cheese.

Bake in a preheat oven at 200 degC for 15~20mins or until the crust has turned golden and the cheese has melted. Serve warm.

42 comments:

i am thinking what to cook for this sat's lunch when i saw this post...2 qtns:1) can i use breadmachine to make the dough?2) can i replace the mixed herbs with dried basil or parsley (can't remember which one i have)?thksoctopusmum

Hi Octopusmum, 1) Although I have not used breadmachine to make pizza doughs, but you can certainly use it.2) I don't know about dried basil, but it is not advisable to use dried parsley. You can omit the mixed herbs if you dont have it.

Found your blog yesterday & I find it wonderful! Unlike u who have all the boys, i have 3 girls!! Its fun when they are involve in cooking This pizza recipe is a wonderful project with them. And also thank you for publishing all the recipes & authors. ;)

i tried out this recipe last sat! this was my first attempt in making pizza, not a bad one since my family polished up the pizzas! however, i had the problem of the dough shrinking after i rolled it out. i used my bread machine to make the dough so it could be due to the machine. next time, i will make the dough manually.thks for the recipe!regardsoctopusmum

Hi Octopusmum, I hope you had a fun time making the pizza :)From my past experience, even if I knead the dough by hand, the dough may still shrink. Besides under-kneading, it could be due to other factors such as protein level of the flour is too high, too short a time given for the 1st proofing, etc. You can let the dough 'rest' longer before rolling out, it should help.

pizza making is fun though i don't quite enjoy the part when i have to wrestle with the dough which kept shrinking...the second portion was the worst...it juz kept shrinking when i put it on the pan...next time, will let it rest longer...thks for the tip.btw, need to ask u sth else...those non-diary whipping cream that are sold in Phoon Huat or Sun Lik come in 1 ltr carton. i had wanted to make the durian oreo cake but that only requires 300ml. may i know how long can the unused cream be kept in fridge and can share how you use the balance?thksregardsoctopusmum

Hi Octopusmum, once opened the non-dairy cream must be used within a few days if left in the fridge. What I usually do is, I will pour 250ml each into clean glass (jam) bottles and store them in the freezer. Thaw before using, and even with freezing, it is advisable to use it up as soon as possible. It helps that our birthdays are crammed together ;)

I am a newbie at cooking and baking but I really want to try to do this pizza because it looks really good and i trust that you definitely have a very good recipe! Could you please give some tips for a first timer on what I should take note? Thank you so much!

Hi Yanlin, there are many things to look out when making a yeast dough. Since I am no expert in baking, maybe you can read up on bread making/pizza making from books or websites such as: baking911.com, and there are also many online videos on homemake pizza which I think will be very helpful for first timers, hope this helps :)

it's me again... need to ask if i can prepare the dough in advance at night for lunch the next day? if yes, at which stage can i prepare the dough up to? is it at the stage where i roll it into the round pizza shape or earlier? and finally, how should i keep it? in the fridge wrapped in cling wrap? i have read somewhere i can do this but can't remember where i saw the instructions...thksoctopusmum

i was very worried about the outcome of the pizza! but when i finally got to doing it,it turned out well:) i am not very sure how to tell if the txture of the bread was good or not.. because im not sure if my kneading was good enough.. but it tasted fine to me:) followed exactly all the steps you listed:) thank u so much! i will definitely make this again!

HHB, my kids requested for pizzas for dinner and I immediately thought of your blog. Chosen this as my base this round. It was a good choice. I used 1 tsp of mixed herbs and it turned out well. Thanks for the recipe.